The forum on Wednesday at Rangsit University on how the Environmental and Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process is carried out for development mega-projects in the South, hosted by the Thai Society of Environmental Journalists, reached a conclusion that the current problems with the EIA/EHIA procedures in the Southern region were largely caused by the lack of proper public participation.

Dr Suphat Hasuwankit, Chana Hospital director and prominent opponent of the Thepa coal-fired power plant, said the EIA/EHIA procedures were only a ritual that the project owners had to go through, while real practice caused conflict everywhere development projects were undertaken.

Suphat claimed that developers routinely hired consultant companies to manipulate the EIA/EHIA processes, so “the public participation in almost all the projects in the South such as the Krabi and Thepa coal-fired power plants is fake public participation”.